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Silk Care Guide: How to Prevent Shrinking and Deformation
I have loved silk since I was a child, thanks to my beautiful mother. But in these years, my blog has not shared about the shrinkage problem during the cleaning process of silk. You must know that as a luxurious fabric, silk gives people the impression of softness, so many people will ignore that it will shrink. problem, so today I will show you whether silk will shrink under different cleaning methods, and we will even list some solutions for you.
does silk shrink?
To understand whether silk shrinks, we first need to know its composition. Silk is a natural protein fiber composed of silk with a smooth enamel layer on the surface, which gives the silk its natural luster. Of course, this also causes some problems. These proteins are very easy to deform under the action of water, leading to shrinkage.
Under normal circumstances, these silks will shrink by up to 1-2% during the washing process. This shrinkage may not be obvious in the clothing, but if it is a scarf or a complete set, it will look very obvious after being used for some time.
How to wash silk without shrinking
So how can we prevent the washed silk products from shrinking? We have put together some suggestions to help you understand how to clean silk without causing shrinkage from beginning to end. These suggestions took me a long time to compile from various authoritative websites.
1. Choose warm water
You must know that the protein in silk is most afraid of high temperatures, so you must wash it with warm water. My suggestion is that the temperature should be below 30°C. If the water temperature is too high, the silk protein will denature and cause shrinkage.
So it would help if you had a moderate temperature to slowly remove the dirt from the silk, and then make sure the silk has enough time to soak
2. Use the right detergent
For so many years, I’d been happily washing my silks with regular detergent, blissfully unaware of the damage I was causing.
Don’t get me wrong, regular detergents get your clothes clean, really clean. However, if you have silk products then mild silk detergent is more suitable for us, You may be wondering why we don’t recommend using regular detergents. The ingredients added to ordinary detergents are very irritating. They contain various chemicals, especially the enzymes in them, which can break down the protein in silk and cause deformation of our silk products, especially silk scarves. The bleaching agents in them can also damage the luster of silk in the long term.
3. The proper drying methodology for silk prohibits direct sunlight exposure. This precaution is necessary because the protein molecules comprising silk fibers are stabilized by intermolecular interactions like hydrogen bonding and ionic bonding. However, the high-energy ultraviolet radiation in sunlight can readily dissociate these bonds, diminishing the attraction between protein chains. This structural disturbance at the molecular level manifests as shrinkage, damage, and color loss in the silk macrostructure. Prudent air drying in UV-protected conditions preserves the delicate protein framework, maintaining silk integrity and appearance.
Ultraviolet radiation will also cause the generation of many free radicals in the protein. These highly reactive free radicals will damage the chemical structure of the protein and break the protein chains, resulting in decreased performance of silk.
Therefore, silk products cannot be directly exposed to the sun. Otherwise, these reactions will occur and our silk will become wrinkled, deformed, and faded.
How to deal with shrunken silk
But if your silk products have inevitably shrunk, don’t worry too much. After all, when we first come into contact with silk products, we may all make a mess. You can try to restore them according to the methods listed below.
1. Use a steam iron,
The silk fibers are expanded and softened by the action of hot steam, and the silk is slowly stretched to its original size, and then flattened and shaped with an iron without steam. This allows the shortened fibers to lengthen again, which we won’t go into in detail here, but you can find more detailed steps in our article on how to iron silk dress
2. Hot Water Reshaping
Soak the silk in warm water for about 15 minutes to allow the fibers to fully absorb the water and soften. Then gently stretch the silk to its original size with your hands and lay it flat to dry. This utilizes moisture to reshape fiber length.
3. Spray shaping
You can use a shaping spray containing locust gum, spray it evenly on the silk, and then smooth the silk with your hands to help the fibers return to their original length. The spray softens and reshapes the fibers.
4. Moist heat ironing
Carry out targeted and gentle ironing on the bony areas, and use the soaked cloth as a thermal insulation layer to allow the silk to slowly regain its shape under the moist heat.
Among the methods listed above, I prefer to use the third spray shaping method. It is not only simple to operate but also saves us a lot of time. Therefore, this method is the first choice for beginners in our test.
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